Friday, September 30, 2011

Where the hell are we? Holden?



Holden has always had the ability to blow my mind.  There are times when he does things, so incredibly normal, that I almost burst into tears.  They can be the simplest of things, like waking up in the middle of the night and calling for me. “Daddy?” how many times has Zane done that, and with a word, fall back to sleep immediately.  That is very typical for Zane, but Holden usually wakes up for hours at a time, when he wakes in the middle of the night. Once in a while, it is that soft “Daddy?” and I say “go back to sleep buddy” and he does.  Those are such great moments!

Then there are those moments that he knocks the socks off of everyone.  Holden is quite simply amazing on the computer.  Even Zane, who is the most competitive person I know, openly admits that Holden is way better on the computer then he is.  I had created password protected accounts for Zane and I, so that Holden wouldn’t mess with our stuff on the computer.  Well Holden liked the fact that I had created different Icons for us both, and that they were password protected.  So he asked me to create a password protected account for him.  I went into the accounts manager in the control panel, and I said, “Okay, Holden, I’m going to make your password ‘google’.”  I typed in google, and thank goodness I also typed in the password on the hint line.  I then asked him which icon he would like, he picked it.  I logged out, and had him log back in, he did it no problem, and that was that.  I didn’t explain anything I did, I just did it.  Later that day, he was on the computer in his brothers room, and he had created a pass word for his account, made it ‘google’ as well and picked the same icon.  All he had to do was see me do it once, and he had it down.  Now he not only goes in and creates accounts, with passwords and icons, but he goes into Zane and my accounts and changes the icons and passwords to suit him.  As I said, luckily, I put the password in the hint, because Holden always does that too.  Just yesterday I decided to write the “Seabiscut” post on the laptop outside.  I go to log in, and my password doesn’t work, so I click on the hint, and Holden has made the pass word ‘holden’.  He loves to create accounts with unique icons and names now.  He will always make one for himself, one for “Daddy” often one for “mom”, and then all kinds of things like “dell” “Hermie” (from Rudolph the red nose rain deer) and all kinds of other things. He kept using the number 710419, as both passwords and account names.  For the longest time I couldn’t figure out what the hell was the significance of this number.  Then one day I decided to pay for Holden’s lunch money on line, instead of with cash.  The school had provided me with an envelope with all of Holden’s information.  So I started to fill out the online application, and it asked for Holden’s lunch number, sure enough, his lunch number was 710419.  I have no idea how he knew that, or why he knew that, but he knew it.

Then one day, I decide to show Holden Google maps.  I pulled up our house, and showed him “Daddy’s house” and directed the map in street view up our street.  He then asks for 7-11, where we often get slurpees on Sundays.  So I bring up 7-11.  Next he asks me for LLL Reptile another of our frequent stops.  At this point Zane calls me, and I go help him with something.  I come back to check on Holden, and he says “Albertsons” and I go, “Okay buddy you want Albertsons” and I look down on the screen, and he has directed himself to Alberstons on his own.  As I watch him, he then directs the street view back to 7-11 and goes back to LLL Reptile, naming each place as he goes.  Holden now regularly gets on Google maps and virtually drives around town.  Sometimes he pics random places in the country and drives around.  He has a great memory for places, we can drive by the Little Ceasars that we sometimes get pizzas from, and he will start asking for pizza.  Sometimes after we have been driving around, I’ll head for home, and as soon as I turn down our street, he’ll say “No!”, and I'll ask  “You want to drive around more” and he will say “Yes”. They describe autistic people as being “In their own world.”  Well I have news for everyone, Holden is very much in THIS world.


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